A few years back while travelling Greece, I learned that travelling while ill-equipped/prepared is a really stupid thing to do. I had travelled to the northern part of the country with no map, grasp of the language, and while I knew which sites I wanted to see...I had no idea where they were... smart eh? I have no idea what I was thinking as barely anyone spoke English, I got lost frequently, and got the worst bout of homesickness.
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| First stop! |
The first leg of my journey is South Korea, but more specifically Seoul. While this wasn’t necessarily the first place on my list due to the winter weather, Bangkok got flooded. As I didn’t want a repeat of Greece, here are a few recommendations in terms of prep and packing:
Cellphone (in this case, a smartphone):
First things first, your foreign cellphone will be useless here. Korea uses CDMA networks and so it’s not as simple as popping in a SIM card. Depending on how long you’re staying, you can actually rent a phone (even a smartphone) at Incheon International Airport. For a short stay there’s no point. Your smartphone will still come in handy though. If you have either an Android or Iphone you can pick up a great app called Jibigo. It’s a translation app that is fantastic compared to Google Translate, and the best thing is that it requires no internet connection! As of now the Korean language pack is going for 4.95 on the Android Market which is an amazing deal.
Learning Hangul Writing:
Hangul is the Korean alphabet. It’s surprisingly simple to learn. Learning this alphabet will help you immensely when trying to orient yourself as well as finding stores or services. Now you don’t need to actually understand the language, but being able to decipher Hangul will help you read street names, or recognize different meats on a menu. Give yourself maybe a week to digest it and you’ll become an expert! I found the following site to have a good breakdown of the alphabet. Keep in mind you just need the basics, you don’t need to learn grammar or what the words mean (for the most part).
Volunteer Tour Guides:
Surprisingly enough, through the Korea Tourism Organization, they have a service where you can sign up for your very own personal FREE tour guide. There’s no catch, but obviously you’re expected to pay their transportation, admission, food etc. This is a pretty cool service which is easy to sign up for: Just visit www.visitkorea.or.kr and sign up for an account. You can then submit your application for a guide from 10-30 days in advance of your trip. The volunteer guides come from all walks of life: students, housewives, businessmen, retirees.
Sadly my request for a volunteer tour guide was rejected. Key thing here is don’t expect to get one even if you book way in advance. Nevertheless it’s still a fantastic service. Apart from that there’s always couchsurfing!
Mapping/scheduling which sites you want to see:
While I’m no fan of micromanaging my days down to the minute, I’ve learned that playing it by ear is really never a good idea. Build a basic structure for your days by looking at a map and grouping different sites you want to see by day. This will add basic structure to your day. For example, I know that for Panmunjeom (DMZ) I’ll need a good portion of the day, also the tours start very early in the morning so I know not to schedule it after a big night out.
These 4 tips for preparation/packing are things I came up with to help avoid my trip to Korea a disaster like Greece was. If you follow this you’ll have a wonderful pocket translator, be able to orient yourself, have a free tour guide, and not waste your days trying to figure out what you’re gonna do. By following these tips you’ll definitely be travelling smart.
Cellphone (in this case, a smartphone):
First things first, your foreign cellphone will be useless here. Korea uses CDMA networks and so it’s not as simple as popping in a SIM card. Depending on how long you’re staying, you can actually rent a phone (even a smartphone) at Incheon International Airport. For a short stay there’s no point. Your smartphone will still come in handy though. If you have either an Android or Iphone you can pick up a great app called Jibigo. It’s a translation app that is fantastic compared to Google Translate, and the best thing is that it requires no internet connection! As of now the Korean language pack is going for 4.95 on the Android Market which is an amazing deal.
Learning Hangul Writing:
Hangul is the Korean alphabet. It’s surprisingly simple to learn. Learning this alphabet will help you immensely when trying to orient yourself as well as finding stores or services. Now you don’t need to actually understand the language, but being able to decipher Hangul will help you read street names, or recognize different meats on a menu. Give yourself maybe a week to digest it and you’ll become an expert! I found the following site to have a good breakdown of the alphabet. Keep in mind you just need the basics, you don’t need to learn grammar or what the words mean (for the most part).
Volunteer Tour Guides:
Surprisingly enough, through the Korea Tourism Organization, they have a service where you can sign up for your very own personal FREE tour guide. There’s no catch, but obviously you’re expected to pay their transportation, admission, food etc. This is a pretty cool service which is easy to sign up for: Just visit www.visitkorea.or.kr and sign up for an account. You can then submit your application for a guide from 10-30 days in advance of your trip. The volunteer guides come from all walks of life: students, housewives, businessmen, retirees.
Sadly my request for a volunteer tour guide was rejected. Key thing here is don’t expect to get one even if you book way in advance. Nevertheless it’s still a fantastic service. Apart from that there’s always couchsurfing!
Mapping/scheduling which sites you want to see:
While I’m no fan of micromanaging my days down to the minute, I’ve learned that playing it by ear is really never a good idea. Build a basic structure for your days by looking at a map and grouping different sites you want to see by day. This will add basic structure to your day. For example, I know that for Panmunjeom (DMZ) I’ll need a good portion of the day, also the tours start very early in the morning so I know not to schedule it after a big night out.
These 4 tips for preparation/packing are things I came up with to help avoid my trip to Korea a disaster like Greece was. If you follow this you’ll have a wonderful pocket translator, be able to orient yourself, have a free tour guide, and not waste your days trying to figure out what you’re gonna do. By following these tips you’ll definitely be travelling smart.
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